Language Exchange Poipet - Day 1

Today was our first day of Language Exchange in Poipet. There are about 25 students that were divided into two teams - the green team led by Carl, Randy, and Karen, and the blue team lead by Scott, Kelly, and Diane.

We started as a big group with introductions. We sang songs, heard Kelly's testimony, and there was some healthy competition (2 students and a teacher from each team had to drink a bottle of water and the first team done won...green won). Then we split into our teams and taught the students common phrases in English, such as "Good Morning. Good Afternoon," etc. After the English, the Cambodians had the opportunity to be the teachers and teach us Khmer. That was challenging.

One activity we engaged in is playing telephone, where a Cambodian whispered a Khmer phrase into the ear of the first person in line. That person had to repeat the phrase to the next person and so on. That was fine until it hit us, the foreigners. We had a hard time repeating the phrases.

After an hour for lunch, we again met as a whole group, singing songs, hearing Randy's testimony, and again engaged in healthy competition (this time 2 students and a teacher had to each 2 french baguettes - blue won). We again split into our teams for teaching both English and Khmer.

On Wednesday, each team must present a show. So we worked on that a little during our teaching time. The students are excited to see us again tomorrow and we are excited to see them as well.